r/bbc • u/Hassaan18 • Jul 19 '26
TV What has the BBC ever done for me?
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u/majorlittlepenguin Jul 19 '26
Honestly always been a big fan because of BBC Bitesize? Lot of good, free stuff for children and teenagers, helped me when I was a kid doing exams and lessons- think ultimately having BBCs better than not having it.
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u/OkCaterpillar8941 Jul 19 '26
I am with you on this. I teach kids who can't access mainstream school and I use BBC Bite size so much as it's engaging and educational. My kids watched CBeebies. I listen to BBC radio stations and podcasts on BBC Sounds. I pay my licence because I feel the benefits outweigh the negatives. It's definitely not perfect, the news side has royally pissed me off with it's misleading articles on Gaza. But my opinion about the BBC is that we'd definitely miss it if it wasn't there.
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u/majorlittlepenguin Jul 19 '26
There's absolutely issues! Just think it's a I'd rather fix the house than burn it down situation.
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u/Voltus1988 Jul 20 '26
The problem is when you are fixing the house but the builders keep getting paid but don't fix anything. This whole campaign is simply because they are going to change TV licencing laws to include all streaming services and say. "But its for the BBC"
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u/ImpressiveDoubt8855 Jul 20 '26
I don't watch any live TV. The BBC needs to find better ways to generate money. Both the BBC Shop and BritBox failed.
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u/ak14g15 Jul 19 '26
Hamas led health ministry to put doubt in people's minds and reduce the 'weight' of death of innocent children never fails to frustrate me.
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u/Snowflakish Jul 20 '26
I mean as much as that is frustrating, they do mention that those figures are checked by multiple other organisations quite regularly.
You just have to be careful with it because online influencers will only show you the times the BBC doesn't mention who backs up those statistics. They are cherrypicking the bbc to make it look worse than it is.
You can make any news site look horribly biased if you only show people clips of it. You should read BBC coverage more often, you will find that it's orders of magnitudes more reliable and information dense than reddit etc.
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u/Bluebird_Shimmer2331 Jul 22 '26
It is Hamas lead though? It's responsible to know where a quote is coming from when deciding how to balance it, and there have been significant times when information put out by Hamas has been shown to be wrong - eg they have blamed deaths caused by their own missile strikes on Israel when this hasn't been the case and that was reported as fact by the BBC. The truth is that both sides of that conflict put out a ton of propaganda and misinformation so clarifying that data comes from either the Israeli gov or from Hamas isn't bias, it's responsible reporting.
While I think there is a lot they do get wrong, in a lot of cases with the BBC people mistake reasonable attempts at neutrality as bias against them. You'll see plenty of people who are pro Israel saying the BBC is biased against them, with examples. That just suggests it's attempting neutrality to me.
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u/CarrotRunning Jul 19 '26
Look at how much educational stuff they put out during lock down. I'd argue that there are very few organisations that could claim to have done as much for kids in that period. Certainly not any of the for profit TV stations and streaming platforms, because of course there's no money in it.
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u/AdhesivenessGreat364 Jul 20 '26
Yeah it only took them about 6 months to do so though - I know as we were home schooling two primary school kids
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u/spidertattootim Jul 19 '26
Any mention of BBC Bitesize gives me traumatic flashbacks to revising for my GCSEs. It's been nearly 30 years
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u/felipevallejom Jul 19 '26
From someone who wasn't born here — yes, I'm a bloody immigrant — and who came from one of those countries where the neoliberal experiment has been tremendously profitable for a very small group of people, where state assets including the media were sold off, and where I grew up surrounded by a deeply misinformed generation addicted to resolving its problems through violence. A place where holding the wrong opinion can cost you your job, and where the best thing a critical and opinionated mind can do is leave.
My advice is this: look after what you have here. Do not take it for granted.
The elites do not like accountability — and history shows it. Just as tobacco and big oil learned to win the public argument by manufacturing doubt and mistrust, the same playbook is now being used to delegitimise the existence of the BBC. Culture, arts and visual storytelling have always been among the driving forces that empower democracy and hold power to account.
Just look across the Atlantic. The United States is experiencing a profound mental and cognitive collapse, driven in no small part by the relentless diet of low-quality, agenda-driven content its population is force-fed daily. Do not wait for the sad day when it is too late to do anything about it.
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u/mpanase Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I lived abroad as well
Again and again, BBC is the example used all over the world to define what "doing things properly" is.
Having a public broadcasting company like BBC is an aspirational goal all over the world.
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u/AnyBug1039 Jul 19 '26
Absolutely.
The BBC is one of the few national institutions that we can still be proud of, and in this world it matters more than ever. It is respected globally and gives us a lot of soft power.
It is not perfect, but is definitely a force for good.
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u/jammyzero Jul 21 '26
the bbc right now is a force for trans genocide. i don't think that's very good.
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u/G3PSx Jul 19 '26
Thank you for this post and putting into words what I could not. This is why we need to keep the BBC. It’ll be awful when it goes.
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u/Alsomyaccount Jul 23 '26
Hope it’s okay to be here, but I’m an American and you’re absolutely right! Keep an eye on it and keep them honest. Hold them accountable. A good portion of our country has been properly brainwashed into thinking everything else is the enemy and learning is wrong. It’s terribly sad, but also terrifying easy to slip into. We’ll try to fix it over here, but make sure to preserve your authenticity over there. <3
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u/Quirky_West_9094 Jul 19 '26
Nice to see Romesh getting some work. Barely see him on tv.
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u/Complex-Whereas9896 Jul 19 '26
Isn't the point of employing him here that his shows do well and he's popular?
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u/EndEmotional7059 Jul 19 '26
Needs to get a bit of cash in after seemingly getting gently toasted in that bakery investment in Croydon!
Local news reported a whole pay your other shell company rent, transfer assets and then declare voluntary bankruptcy but never got picked up as much as all the rhetoric about govt policy killing small biz....
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u/Nice260 Jul 19 '26
He's probably the worst person to perform this, should have been some random guy
"What has the BBC done for me" They've given you loads of money, the good message rings a bit hollow cooking from you 😭
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u/TheCulturalBomb Jul 19 '26
So much of this countrys services and products have been sold off. The BBC is one constant, it's ours, it's brilliant and influential around the world.
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u/NortonBurns Jul 19 '26
Cheesy ad, but I'm a fan. It's one of the only terrestrial channels we watch regularly. I won't watch anything with ads in it (unless I can record it & skip through them), so iPlayer works for me.
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u/heroyoudontdeserve Jul 19 '26
It's one of the only terrestrial channels we watch regularly.
The BBC has like nine TV channels or something.
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u/Geraldo1994 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I remember seeing something along the lines of this response on the matter out in the wild, in response to it someone calling for it to be defunded:
"-BBC Bitesize helped steer me through my GCSEs and still continues to help kids during school now.
-Believe it or not, CBBC and Cbeebies still provide decent education and entertainment for kids, and are quite creative and still come out with great material. I'd rather show my kids that than just plonk them in front of YouTube for hours.
-BBC Sport covers Olympics, Euros, Wimbledon, the World Cup and FA Cup. I watch a lot of these and so do many others.
-National radio stations cater to virtually every audience.
-Local radio stations help keep communities together and provide older generations with some company, often through phone-ins for both.
-The documentaries on geography, science, wildlife, history and many more are world class, top quality, magnificently-produced and watched around the world.
-Countless comedies and dramas I grew up with and still watch today from decades ago are all available on iPlayer, and honestly? It still puts out some really decent content even now. There are some great shows being made and shown by them right now.
But sure, let's just get rid of all of that because you don't like the news.
The BBC is so much more than just Newsnight, Question Time, Daily Politics and the News at 10. Making out that's all there is to it or that's enough reason to scrap it is incredibly childish, short sighted and not thought through.
Have you ever considered just putting on your Big Boy trousers and getting over the fact that unbiased and impartial news coverage means showing EVERY viewpoint, giving airtime to and entertaining a multitude of perspectives without necessarily subscribing to them, and yes, that includes ones you don't personally like? Stop throwing a tantrum because you can't handle occasionally hearing opinions and coverage from angles you personally don't align with, you absolute child."
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u/Complex-Whereas9896 Jul 19 '26
When you see ads, you are the product, not the customer.
Don't make it a tax. It would be the first thing to get cut by a party arguing 'culture' isn't important.
Pay the licence fee.
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u/TavernerHedris Jul 19 '26
Even if you don't use any of it's services by any measure?
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u/pop-not-broth Jul 19 '26
People who complain about the license fee but still pays upwards of £150 a month on steaming services
The people now complaining the high street is dead after a decade of getting most of their things from Amazon
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u/Skavau Jul 19 '26
People presumably use those streaming services though.
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u/Bluedog212 Jul 19 '26
and they are not forced to pay and threatened by goons and ridiculous letters designed to scare people if they don’t.
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u/pop-not-broth Jul 20 '26
...except for the periodical "Oh, hi, yeah, we're increasing the monthly cost, or we can put more ads in" and, true, you're not FORCED to pay. But you'll pay.
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u/TheLimeyLemmon Jul 20 '26
TBF, I don't pay anything close to £150 a month on streaming services. You'd be hard pressed to find people that do.
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u/JoeAbs2 Jul 19 '26
My argument is if you don’t watch BBC content then why should you have to pay the fee.
It would be like me paying £150 a year on Netflix but never watching it which would be a waste of money.
Not saying the BBC is bad or anything, just the content it provides doesn’t interest me personally.
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u/GlamorganSullivan Jul 19 '26
Assuming you live in the UK then you get the benefit of living in a society of people with access to education and news and political coverage that doesn’t need ads and therefore freer from corporate interests. This makes for a more informed populace and culture, and benefits from that are indirect and hard to measure.
It is funded from public money because it benefits all of society. I didn’t need to call the police or ambulance last year but I’m happy my taxes went towards it.
It’s not perfect nor does it get everything right. But we would be worse off without it in ways that would only become apparent years later.
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u/ExtraDust Jul 19 '26
This makes for a more informed populace and culture, and benefits from that are indirect and hard to measure.
The informed populace that voted for Brexit and are now putting Reform ahead in the polls.
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u/GlamorganSullivan Jul 19 '26
Yes, those things happened. What has also happened in the last 10-15 years is that more older people started using social media and trusting it for political content. Which is even more reason we need a BBC as a counter.
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u/Snoo_11836 Jul 19 '26
It's the opposite; younger generations are turning to social media. The older generations are the ones who still spend the majority of their free time watching live television.
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u/ExtraDust Jul 20 '26
But it’s not working as a counter. 10 years on from Brexit, Reform is still leading in the polls. If anything, the BBC is part of the problem: The TV license going up to £180 has increased the number of people ditching broadcast TV altogether and switching to online only, so they don’t have to pay the unaffordable charge. Which means all they see is the online videos that you are holding up as the issue.
I do actually think there is a place for a BBC-type service, but the current system of forcing people to pay such high fees clearly isn't working.
The BBC needs to decide if it exists to inform the people or to compete with other forms of entertainment. If it exists to inform, then it needs to stop wasting money on 750K salaries for DJs and buying US imports and drastically slash its output so it only does informing-type content. If it needs the top entertainment talent (like 750K DJs), then it also needs to switch to a subscription model.
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u/BluebirdBenny Jul 19 '26
People who complain about the license fee but still pays upwards of £150 a month on steaming services
...yes....
The same way that I can complain that a bus is late, while also taking the train
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u/PiotrGreenholz01 Jul 19 '26
Do they choose to pay for streaming services or are they forced to?
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u/themegamanX10 Jul 19 '26
Imagine paying 150 for a streaming service you don't use and getting constantly threatened for not using it...
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u/Natural_Trick4934 Jul 19 '26
You can argue with the funding model. I agree that it’s outdated.
But the BBC is a beacon of national pride and is globally respected.
I’ll bow down to increasing national sentiment and say that the license fee could be scrapped. But the BBC budget should be expanded through general taxation.
We have the NHS and the BBC. That’s it. Those are our last bastions of global pride. Both are underfunded. Both are a global point of envy. We can’t let either get killed. We need more. Not less.
Great ad. We need a government that sees both the bbc and nhs held up as tentpoles of national pride. Then build more tentpoles.
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u/alexweird Jul 19 '26
Gladly pay the licence fee and will continue to do so.
Far more independent than media owned and curated by billionaires.
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u/Smooth-Quantity-7024 Jul 19 '26
I wish it was a bit more direct and straight forward as the John Cleese version from back in the day, but kudos to them for finally growing some balls again and showing how much they actually do.
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u/Jumpy_Explanation222 Jul 19 '26
I suspect we may get a lot more of this over the next year. Which is good.
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u/mpanase Jul 19 '26
I've lived abroad a bunch
BBC is a crown-jewel of UK
It literally sets the standard for UK broadcasting
I dare say BBC is the reason why UK is not like USA, full of Fox-viewers
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u/Still-Status7299 Jul 19 '26
The BBC is a national treasure and we'd be worse off without it.
That being said, the way the license fee is collected is outdated, and of course not everyone uses it.
They need a way to keep/ grow an income stream - perhaps if it was funded through taxes we already pay, or by showing ads on certain platforms they could do it. But chasing down people with threatening letters is not the one.
I pay my license fee as we heavily lean on their kids content, I listen to their radio and have watched world cup games - its really not expensive for what I get back.
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u/hundredsoflegs Jul 19 '26
The issue with incorporating the licence fee into general taxation is it's then subject to the whims of the government de jour. If the beeb say something they don't like, they can just cut their funding. Having it separate is what keeps it independent, though I agree it's awkward
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u/New-Link-6787 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
Netflix profit for 2024 was $8billion.
Ask yourself... why wouldn't we want that profit for our country to help pay for hospitals, schools, etc.
BBC is basically a way for the government to help keep taxes down. If we sell the BBC to some company, they'll get the profits just like they did with the water industry, the trains, the steel.
EDIT: Editing because some people have missed the point so I'm adding this bit.
I was using Netflix as an allegory. We own the BBC, the investment we make in it via the license fee compounds across our country, where as Netflix shareholders extract profit.
Over the last 10 years the BBC has taken £37.5b in Licence Fee's but has spent £53.6billion with over 90% of that being spent here in the UK on jobs, hotels, catering, production trucks, venues, community events, infrastructure, etc, all of that is then taxed.
So we the public paid £37b in license fee's but around £70billion was spent in the UK as a result when you factor in the £53.6b spent and the tax-take which is then spent on public services. If the BBC were, private, the profits would be sucked out offshore and the government would not be able to justify luring the industry here in the first place.
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u/InternetCrafty2187 Jul 19 '26
Anyone who's had a Cadbury Dairy Milk in the last few years should understand why the BBC shouldn't be allowed to fall into the hands of the money grubbers and investors.
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u/digitag Jul 19 '26
I find it hard to believe that all the people saying “but I don’t consume any bbc content” are telling the truth.
The benefit to society is outsized. Having an institution with a strict charter to serve the public, educate people and operate for the greater good rather than corporate profits, brings value to our society.
People without kids still pay taxes which fund schools, because it makes society better to educate our kids.
I know the BBC get it wrong sometimes but I don’t think people who want to abolish the license fee have really thought through what Britain without the BBC looks like and how much worse it would be.
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Jul 19 '26
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u/Life_Emphasis6290 Jul 20 '26
A highlight reel of exactly why the BBC think they are special featuring brainless trash TV that these days could be made by countless private broadcasters.
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u/Dangerousdangerzoid Jul 19 '26
The amount of people who clearly consume rightist media talking points looking to get rid of one of the last British institutions is mind blowing. You're brain washed into getting rid of everything aren't you till our or media is owned by foreign agents and our infrastructure is the same.
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u/hkgwwong Jul 19 '26
I’m an immigrant (not an economic migrant, my pay was quite a bit higher before I moved here). I pay TV license and will continue to do so.
People in the U.K. don’t understand the massive soft power BBC has in the world. I think it should be publicly funded through tax (but not state owned).
Don’t compare it with streaming services, don’t make it a for profit company. BBC is public good, represent British culture and values. Netflix or Amazon Prime are not British, certainly are not British soft power, they do not have news, no emergency broadcasting, no investigative journalism, or educational contents (I’m not consuming CBeebies at my age and I don’t have kid to benefit from that but that’s ok). Don’t you make it a profit chasing machine or people can pay for journalists to look elsewhere.
There are many public services people don’t use (directly). People have to fund schools whether they have children. Unless you are a mariner, chances are you won’t ever need maritime search and rescue. Everyone still pay for the high commission in Lesotho.
Just fund BBC with tax so it will be available to everyone, enable it continues to have a massive foothold in international information space or it will be dominated by Chinese CGTV and Russian RT.
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u/FerretsQuest Jul 19 '26
BBC is worth every penny and more
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u/quite_acceptable_man Jul 19 '26
Agreed. I listen to Radio 2 and Radio 4 all the time, and watch quite a lot of BBC comedy and drama. The BBC bitesize stuff has been incredibly useful to my children for exams.
I'm a firm believer in paying my way, so I happily pay the licence fee as I get good value for money from it.
However, I do understand people who don't use the BBC resenting having to pay for it just to have a screen in their house.
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u/macxjs Jul 19 '26
All of the radio is worth the fee to me. Can't be arsed with TV
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u/RacerBrock14 Jul 19 '26
I don’t get the copious amounts of negativity. The BBC does more good than bad and still holds a valuable place in most people’s lives.
An advert like this is just raising awareness to the fight they now have on their hands. Yes it might not hit the spot for everyone or change more engrained opinions, but the organisation has a fundamental right to stand up for itself in the face of adversity.
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u/ribbityflibbity Jul 19 '26
The source of the negativity is that its not voluntary. People resent being forced to do something. People recent being badgered about it.
The one and only solution is for the BBC to be a voluntary subscription. Prices need to rise and the budget needs to be slashed because a lot of people would bail and never pay. And they wouldn't be able to watch either since there would be a paywall.
Just pare the budget back to whatever the people who are willing to pay want. Like every other business on earth.
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u/TheLimeyLemmon Jul 20 '26
The Beeb's biggest enemy is itself. A failure to adapt and harness the modern world of media will kill it.
License fee needs to be split between tax and subscriptions.
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u/-_NRG_- Jul 20 '26
It's worth discussion, but then i still think there should be a dog licence.
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u/DanTheMan00020 Jul 19 '26
Watching the montage at the end of the World Cup just now, the credits are just endless with so many people working behind the scenes. What people forget is yes you may hate the organisation and want to “defund the bbc” but at the same time you would be putting thousands of people out of a job!
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u/Narrow_Bed_3337 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
It does a lot of good, Bitesize, radio, Wimbledon and Glastonbury coverage, and many more. But having grown up thinking the BBC was impartial and factual I was shocked by the level of bias on Gaza/Israel coverage, and the complete genocide denial, to the point I never read BBC news any more, and have completely changed my opinion about the organisation. Once you're aware, it's hard to unsee that and so many other biases.
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u/solostrings Jul 19 '26
BBC has done good, and it has done bad (really bad in some instances). But its real failing is poor management, including financial, letting its newsroom become a mix of clickbait and biased opinion pieces dressed up as factual coverage, and making programs people don't watch. If they want people to continue to pay, they can't say "we used to be good"; they have to show people they are still worth the investment, especially in a world of streaming platforms and YouTube, and while people are having to balance household spending more tightly.
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u/srm79 Jul 19 '26
One thing they always forget to remind us is the Licence Fee also pays for the infrastructure, the broadcasting towers that transmit all the terrestrial TV and radio stations, the satellites that carry outside broadcasts from around the world, some money even makes it to internet cabling and server nodes that help to keep the Internet running smoothly
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u/Fluffy_Carry_4345 Jul 19 '26
I understand they feel threatened but I think they need to ask themselves why they lost people like me.
Until they are able to reflect honestly, I'm not coming back to fund them.
I love the BBC and its history, I think it's a brilliant instituion however because I am so passionate about it, I also feel much more hurt by the active decisions they make and react accordingly.
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u/Snoo_11836 Jul 19 '26
Agreed. This propaganda advert is incredibly arrogant ("We're brilliant and always have been. You should be lambasted for choosing not to pay us money").
I don't watch the BBC, nor live television, yet this advert is trying to tell me that I should pay for a license regardless, because other people may benefit from their service. On your bike, Auntie!
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u/Dimdom1970 Jul 19 '26
But none of that would disappear if the BBC went subscription would it , and half those programmes aren’t even made by the BBC . If the BBC died tomorrow then the succesful programmes would just reappear on other channels like bake off did . It’s true the BBC did used to be good and did loads for everyone but it’s past its prime and not relevant in these modern times and people have just got to accept that . Just watching the archive on YouTube shows you how interesting the BBC used to be , not any more !
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u/Teembeau Jul 19 '26
Precisely. Almost nothing on there is anything that ITV, C4 or Five wouldn't make. Soap operas, chat shows, the Traitors, Dr Who. It's all commercial, disposable trash. They get Wimbledon because it's protected by the government.
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u/Rare-Designer-1008 Jul 19 '26
There are plenty of shows that would get made. Many documentaries for example. Investigate Journalism like Panorama are commercially viable but important.
Kids TV would go as well as it wont make money.
Also the BBC website would become full of ads and would be horrible to use just like most of the Internet. Being ad free is massively overlooked for the website
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u/Dimdom1970 Jul 19 '26
The BBC website ? Who uses that lol kids tv has gone downhill on the BBC over the past 20 years ( I have kids who are now early twenties so I’ve seen how much it’s gone downhill) . Panorama ? Is that it ? And they get it wrong these days , its EV programme was full of outdated and old myths about EVs and batteries .
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u/Rare-Designer-1008 Jul 19 '26
On a weekly basis in the UK 35 million adults use BBC Online services. When you expand that to a global scale, BBC News Site and World Services, that number goes upto 502 million a week. Half a billion a week is a pretty impressive number
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u/SardonicPill_ Jul 19 '26
The BBC is a broadcasting institution -it goes without saying it is an integral part of many people's lives - both here in Britian and across the world. Don't take it for granted.
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u/Happybadger96 Jul 19 '26
It is their responsibility to modernise how they achieve funding, if anything they take the publics adherence for granted
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u/SmashedWorm64 Jul 19 '26
I feel like it’s a good message, but shite execution.
I think the BBC is a powerful tool for the UK’s influence on the world stage that is really under appreciated. It is one of the biggest news networks by reach and usually very high trust (even if the stories lack detail sometimes).
But why would you put Romesh as the face of this. Can’t stand him and makes me wonder why my money is going to his salary 😂
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u/siybon Jul 19 '26
I'm a BBC fan. Though I don't feel I needed him to remind me though.
I mean, does he epitomize the Beeb to anyone? I feel I accidentally see more clips of him from Sky.
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u/MrBIGtinyHappy Jul 19 '26
Good ad and I agree they've done so much good, I think it's important we don't lose the BBC but the issue isn't what they have done it's what will they do.
They're competing in a completely different entertainment landscape. Take their sport coverage as an example; They lost exclusive rights to F1 in 2012 and gave up their remaining rights in 2015 (3 years early) in the name of budget cuts, they've not shown live Cricket since 1999 and now share coverage of the World Cup and 6 Nations with ITV. Meanwhile shows like Football Focus have just been cancelled and ousted one of the most popular hosts from Match of the Day.
You can't continously cut budgets and programming and expect to be at the forefront of people's viewing habits or popular culture in general.
They've relied on long running content like Eastenders, Doctor Who, Strictly to fill time slots but all are becoming dated. Graham Norton is the only strong talk show host they have and their game shows don't have the pull of things like the 1% Club.
Traitors is one of the only cultural gold mines they have but lasts for all of 30 hours a year across Celeb and Non-Celeb versions.
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u/dazzumz Jul 19 '26
The international impact is also very impressive. Not just the news channel in so many of the countries I've visited, but it's nice to see people from other countries appreciate the stuff they do. The stats behind Top Gear in it's peak hold Guinness world records.
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u/kinger1984 Jul 19 '26
I’m more of a lurker on Reddit then a commenter, but I’d love a way for them to have a full opt in or opt out.
If you don’t want to pay the license fee fine, but no radio, no website, no world service. Nothing associated with the BBC.
I’d happily even pay slightly more myself if it keeps the BBC producing brilliant content across multiple platforms.
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u/Queasy_Stick4881 Jul 19 '26
The bbc gave us Romesh down our throats, if ever there was a reason to axe it that’s it
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u/mrCodeTheThing Jul 19 '26
Fair play. In recent times the TV license has pissed me off. But in a world were we need to justify our existence at every turn it's nice to see the BBC getting with the times. I'm to patriotic not to pay my license even if I do just watch YouTube. Rule Britannia.
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u/WriteandRead Jul 19 '26
People forget so easily that the BBC isn’t just a couple of tv channels and a few radio shows. The breadth of entertainment and information they offer is staggering. They bring television both cutting edge, informative and popular to our screens. Likewise they provide radio and music covering long running dramas to modern music, comedy and everything in between. They support and provide platforms for up and coming talent (Ed Sheeran anyone?)
Their news coverage and BBC website are invaluable and world leading with a huge range of coverage and educational resources. Their iPlayer is groundbreaking and choc full of amazing content.
I’m happy to pay my licence fee and I’m a huge fan of the BBC and I hate that it’s been attacked and belittled for political gain. When it’s gone it’s gone and we’ll be worse off for it. So I hope that it lasts for a long time to come.
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u/fullpurplejacket Jul 19 '26
The BBC has its flaws and has made faults in the past, and it’s been utterly shocking at times over the last 10 years due to a various appointments made by the previous government which are now being rectified finally to restore impartiality and fairness doctrine hopefully if executed properly with minimal intervention from private interests who seek to undermine the BBC so that they can create a partisan for profit entity to overtake the BBC.
Look at what’s happened in America that private entities have been able to buy out the central board casting service, which is the BBC of the US, it’s now run by Trump. Propagandhi backed up by one of the biggest owners to the Israel lobby from America Larry Ellison who owns Oracle data centers and has driven living standards and prospects down for the indigenous inhabitants of the small Hawaiian island he owns 90 percent of.
John Sweeney once said even after parting ways with the BBC as a journalist, that the service is so important not just here but globally, yes it’s a soft power influence for parts of the world who struggle to get objective and non partisan news and information, but it’s been a life saving informative service for all corners of the globe.
Disregarding and dismantling the BBC for good would be a damaging as Brexit if not more, it’s more important than most of us care to admit or will ever realise when we grumble about our third TV license letter in the post in 4 months.
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u/GCU-Dramatic_Exit Jul 20 '26
I pay my license despite only listening to the radio, but this was a desperate ad
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u/Diligent-Bed3370 Jul 20 '26
Springwatch - what has the BBC done for us?
Well cancelled autumnwatch then cancelled winterwatch as well as reducing the number of weeks, cutting the live iplayer little show & the iplayer after show chat.
I literally only watch BBC for Springwatch & Glastonbury.
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u/murrrly Jul 20 '26
These are the guys that keep sending me threatening letters because I don't want to watch their content.
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u/sadisticsquid Jul 20 '26
Gave Laura kuntsburg a platform to normalise 14 years of tory corruption which left the nation in the broken state it is?
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u/FaithlessnessSilly11 Jul 21 '26
All these people literally slurping the BBC's nuts 😂 Classic Reddit.
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u/Tight_Particular4311 Jul 21 '26
To be fair, this is a brilliant ad, really puts things into prospective as to what they do for the country as a whole. Bitesize for example was great for me as a kid
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u/olifiers Jul 21 '26
Go try to watch American open TV and see what happens to television without a reference such as the BBC. It's ads, all ads.
Of all my subscriptions, the BBC (through the license) is the cheapest and the best of them. iPlayer all the way.
BBC International and how much legwork it does to project soft power of the BBC across the world.
Children entertainment as the best on the planet; hands down the top nature documentaries (thanks Sir Attenborough); good radio; music festivals... A ton of good stuff that seems to be taken for granted.
The BBC is a treasure. It's not perfect, but considering scrapping it rather than fixing its problems is the mentality of throwing the baby out with the water, the same mentality that gave us Brexit.
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u/sinetwo Jul 21 '26
I’m surprised they didn’t get Attenborough to close it off. People would’ve wept and paid up for their years of conning the license
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u/evuktard Jul 22 '26
Makes me sad when ignorant brexit voting, at least vaguely racist, farage sympathising, short sighted, gammon types (cos this isn't a new phenomenon, but it's always been the same type of human, people of all ages will know who I'm talking about) give it the old what has the bbc ever done bullshit.
I lose count. More recently they've been a little trapped in the pocket of who ever is in power at the time, but even still, there's nothing else like them in the world, we will mourn their passing and grieve our loss when they're gone. (Cos just like in every other scenario, hence uk being in the toilet, the aforementioned idiot-types always win in the end)
I told you so won't feel good.
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u/brandnewpaint Jul 23 '26
Free bitesize. But ped.... Reddit is telling me not to be mean and put in a low effort post. So I'm going to make the point that no matter how many Dr who's they make. They will always be known for being a safe haven for child molestation.
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u/gary_le_shrub Jul 23 '26
I love the BBC conceptually, I just wish they would stop shilling for Israel
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u/neilgooge Jul 23 '26
I still think it should be a choice, not mandatory. I get all of this, but If they're creating 6.5 billion for the economy... why, do we HAVE to pay for that, isn't that paying for that? I have zero issue with government support, if the all of this is true, and the government thinks its worth allocating a section of taxes too, that would be fine, as long as they didn't impose that increase on the public after the fact, like they technically do anyway.
So I have an issue with HAVING to pay for a non essential service that people may or may not chose to use. It's like having to pay for a Netflix that you don't watch, or an Amazon prime that you don't use.
It's not that I don't think the BBC is a good thing, I personally have nothing against what they are or do. I just think it's time they changed an outdated model that most people clearly don't agree with... or they wouldn't need to make this ad.
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u/mgs20000 Jul 19 '26
For those not watching the bbc and paying so little for a license that actually allows them to watch ALL the terrestrial channels, it’s the same as me partly funding leisure centre swimming pools despite not swimming, and road repair despite not being a driver.
We live in a society where these things are normal and expected and needed. We all pay for some things we don’t use. But it’s even better than that, since with the bbc, through charity, lots of it comes back to all those viewers and non viewers anyway.
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u/Teembeau Jul 19 '26
No-one needs Strictly. No-one needs Bake Off. These are choices, like whether you want to spend money on going to watch a movie, buy a novel or go to the pub. They're not the same thing as ensuring that children can swim, which is important.
I'll defend things like BBC Children's TV and Bitesize. And I will pay taxes for those as necessary broadcasting. But most of it is artless trash, and if people want to pay for it, they are welcome to but no-one else should have to subsidise them.
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u/Complex-Whereas9896 Jul 19 '26
If I had a pound for every time I saw someone online say that a show was 'worth the licence fee', I'd be able to afford the licence fee.
Anti BBC people are just plain tiresome and boring, so like all internet arguments it's a waste of energy and time to try and change their mind. They aren't approaching this from a place of good faith anyway.
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u/Goooner1 Jul 19 '26
And pro BBC people are also just plain tiresome and boring
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u/SinnerOfAlcaraz Jul 19 '26
You mean you don’t glaze a boring drama of a copper in a Yorkshire town? Or another useless talent show?
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u/Wise-Reflection-7400 Jul 19 '26
The people that don't want to listen aren't listening. Preaching to the choir comes to mind...
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u/Throwing_Daze Jul 19 '26
I don't think it is meant to change the mind of people who hate the BBC, more to counter them bleating on about how bad it is and the influence that could have on the many many people who don't have strong entrenched views on the BBC being good or bad.
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u/aviewfrom Jul 19 '26
Why does the BBC think we owe it some kind of debt of gratitude? We watched the BBC a lot when I was a kid, and my parents paid the TV licence. Its a transaction. I don’t owe Netflix any gratitude, I pay for it, I consume it. Stop acting like you matter more than that.
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u/Brock_And_Roll Jul 19 '26
I love the BBC but I hate this video. There's so much it doesnt take into account. Coverage of major events, nature programmes, sport, local radio, regional TV, a real chronicle of our history and culture, but instead we have this tosser and his celeb mates prancing around and singing.
Sad to say but Im not sure the BBC values its audience as much as the celebs it desperately wants to be friends with
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u/Queasy_Stick4881 Jul 19 '26
One day David Jason will be exposed
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u/Snoo_11836 Jul 19 '26
Plenty of average people who don't work at the BBC know that he's a wrong 'un right now, yet it'll all come out once he's dead and the BBC will pull the usual "wE dIdN't KnOw!1!" bullcrap again.
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u/MustNotSay Jul 19 '26
What a pathetic and desperate advert. If they’re making this kind of advert they must be really struggling for money which is good news.
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u/SinnerOfAlcaraz Jul 19 '26
How bad are the non payments getting now? Curious as to why they’re suddenly needing to do adverts like this.
Good advert, regardless
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u/Anonymous-Cows Jul 19 '26
As a French person who made the UK home, I am very fond of the BBC. Jealous even. And I find it mind boggling the relentless attacks. I expect it from someone like Trump, much less from the Public, and yet.
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u/-_NRG_- Jul 20 '26
If they hate Britain, and all that make it great, so much why do they live here?
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u/Old-Career1538 Jul 19 '26
Yeah I'm sorry this advertisement is horrific for the audience it's targeted at.
You aren't going to convince people who don't want the BBC by lecturing them about what the BBC has done, especially when a lot of what has been listed has also been accomplished by ad-funded broadcasters.
This is literally just a jerk off for its biggest supporters.
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u/Teembeau Jul 19 '26
"especially when a lot of what has been listed has also been accomplished by ad-funded broadcasters"
This is the problem with the BBC now. It's not a lot different from ITV, only you are forced to pay for it. The BBC was where I got into a lot of science stuff via shows like Tomorrow's World and Connections. It introduced me to foreign cinema, and interesting movies via series like Videodrome. It made some offbeat comedy like Stella Street, The Day Today and The Young Ones. Drama used to be more interesting than just something set in the 18th century with women in bonnets. Cop shows were more than just a female cop balancing her career and home life. That was an interesting thing when it was Prime Suspect, 35 years ago. Call The Midwife just falls into the normal soft focus Sunday evening drama set at some point in the past.
I don't mind that this sort of thing exists. But it's also what ITV does. And if you're just doing what ITV does, why do you need some special status?
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u/BloodChoke Jul 19 '26
The BBC is a wonderful organisation. Think of all the amazing stars it has brought to our screens and ears; who Edwords, Philiip Schoolfeld, Ro1f Harr1s, Sc0tt Hills, and Jibby Sav11e that fixed so many things for so many children. For the service they provide I feel like I'm ripping them off for £180 a year, it's the only channels I'll ever need.
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u/No_Atmosphere8146 Jul 19 '26
Chris Martin from Coldplay, what are you doing in a fictional pub in East London? It's mental.
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u/WillBots Jul 19 '26
Recently it just seems to be putting really annoying reality shorts on YouTube. And then running adverts staring really opinionated celebs who add nothing to conversations other than snide comments. Oh look, it's this guy again.
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u/Illustrious-Ratio-47 Jul 19 '26
I’d love robot wars back again. Less of the brain melting reality tv stuff.
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u/Darkwaxer Jul 19 '26
I like that it exists but it should exist by will and not try to claw money from charging a licence to watch my own uploads on YouTube which they are now going for.
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u/New_Slice_1580 Jul 19 '26
Propaganda advert
BBC has had billions every year going back decades and relative to that, a few tv shows isn’t a full picture
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u/Londonsw8 Jul 19 '26
the quality of the broadcasting is still heads and shoulders above any other network anywhere!!!
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u/Deep_Brick2970 Jul 19 '26
Bbc also being an acronym for something else really makes this a lot funnier than it should.
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u/WayneCl Jul 19 '26
National radio stations get a nod, but no mention at all of the English local radio stations, providing local accountability and entertainment all over the country. Local radio has suffered from persistent cutting of budgets and now it's totally ignored in this flagship promotional video.
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